Senior Grand Tutor Hong was defeated.
When seeing that Hong Taihe had solidified his Self-world without hesitation, Yu Taixu felt greatly relieved. He slowly closed his eyes and sat down, with his back slightly leaning backward. He leaned against the chair without uttering a word for a long time.
Likewise, Zhou Bao turned his five fingers into claws. On his fingertips, there were wisps of smoke that was faintly visible. He didn’t keep taking action because he knew that Hong Taihe had admitted defeat the moment he solidified his Self-world.
He had heard of something about the battles between Lords of Heaven from Jing XIII in Azure Big World. Without a doubt, he was aware of the World-solidifying Skill, the last resort of Lords of Heaven.
Therefore, as the purple crystal appeared, a hint of a smile flashed across Zhou Bao’s face. By giving his body a shake, Zhou Bao landed on Turtle Back Mountain earlier than Senior Grand Tutor Hong did.
Shortly after he had landed on Turtle Back Mountain, he heard a loud bang. The purple crystal fell to the ground and bounced up and down twice on the earth. Later, the crystal broke apart and, pale-faced, Senior Grand Tutor Hong showed up before the crowd.
“You have won this battle!” Taking a look at Zhou Bao, Senior Grand Tutor Hong didn’t know what else could he say. He had solidified his Self-world, however, not only his Self-world had been destroyed, but the Gang Qi that he had practiced for a long time had also disappeared totally. He was unable to fight with Zhou Bao anymore. Under such circumstances, if he still refused to give up, it would look as if he was acting shamelessly.
Given his identity and position, he could not save his face since he had lost to Zhou Bao, a teenager, so easily today. Unquestionably, he would be embarrassed to stay here any longer. Hence, he waved his sleeve and withdrew his ruby flask and the golden puppet. Without saying any word and looking at anyone, he directly left Turtle Back Mountain with Emperor Yang.
“Haha, it seems that I have offended him badly!” Zhou Bao grinned and took his Flipping Sky Seal and Gold Bracelet back as well. Looking around, Zhou Bao felt that the expressions in the eyes of the people present became utterly different. A smile crept up the corner of his mouth. He turned back and asked Chen Jinzhong, “Excuse me, may I know if the candidate for the Human Emperor has been decided yet?”
Chen Jinzhong took a deep look at Zhou Bao and nodded his head in agreement, saying, “Yes, of course, now that you have won the battle, this matter is settled. However, the Golden Throne has been destroyed and it’s just not realistic to create a new one. Furthermore, it will take quite a long time to make a substitute. So I guess you need to wait for several days before the coronation.”
“I’m not in a hurry!” Zhou Bao waved his hand and laughed, asking, “My dear father-in-law, are you in a hurry?”
It looked as if Yan Yuntian was dreaming presently. At Zhou Bao’s words, he shook his head hurriedly and replied, “No, no, I’m not!”
“Haha…!” The crowd couldn’t help laughing as they watched this scene. It seemed as if all those that had taken place on the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony today had drifted away with their laughter.
“The Divine Wind Palace. Is this the Divine Wind Palace?”
Looking at the glorious and magnificent palace, Zhou Bao was greatly impressed by it. The Divine Wind Palace, be it scale, standard, or imposing manner, was much better than his Sea-calming Palace.
It was a completely separated micro world, within which the density of the spiritual qi was on a par with that in the 33 Heavens, such as Azure Heaven. However, this space was much similar to the rift of the gray space he had fused together with the Azure Secret Area and later became the Sea of Divine Power. There was nothing but spiritual qi. Such a place was the best choice to be used to build palaces and practice sites.
Presently, this space was completely used to build the Divine Wind Palace. Moreover, after so many years, void of the least breath of life, this space had turned into a place full of vitality, with the existence of assorted exotic flowers, rare herbs, divine beasts, and rare birds. Around the Divine Wind Palace was even a dense primeval forest which stretched out to a far greater distance away, with Divine Qi overflowing everywhere.
Zhou Bao’s reaction would be justifiable. But Yan Yuntian, who had never seen such a scene, was stunned by it for the moment.
After all, he was the candidate for the Human Emperor. Although he could not take the throne immediately because the Golden Throne had been destroyed, him becoming the Human Emperor was a hard and fast matter. Thus, in terms of position, he was neck and neck with the mighty experts in the five biggest sects.
Of course, he was just nominally on par with them. Now look, none of the suzerains of the five biggest sects were here, and even the lord of the Divine Wind Palace, Yu Taixu, was absent. Chen Jinzhong was his only companion, and following them were the spectators from the other four sects.
Yan Yuntian’s position had been greatly improved after he became the candidate for the Human Emperor. He stood at the very front of all the people and was followed by Chen Jinzhong, who lagged behind half step. While walking, the latter was introducing him to the situation of the Divine Wind Palace. Behind them were Elder Qing, Child-endowing Buddha, and other people, who were from the five biggest sects. As for Zhou Bao, he had already reached the top of the steps and was now looking up at the huge plaque hanging over the palace.
The Human Emperor Palace!
Yes, this was the Human Emperor Palace, rather than the Grand Divine Wind Palace!
The Divine Wind Palace and the Grand Divine Wind Palace were two different concepts. The former was the name of a sect and also this small space, while the latter was one of the untold palaces in the Divine Wind Palace and also the grandest one.
At the first sight of the Human Emperor Palace, it looked a little out of place with the surrounding buildings. Although it was also splendid and magnificent, it didn’t carry an air of simplicity and great antiquity like the other buildings did and lacked an inborn atmosphere of history. It looked as though it was a place for upstarts among the building complex here.
Yes, it felt like a place for upstarts.
Of course, it was just Zhou Bao’s feeling. At present, Yan Yuntian had already gone into raptures. He thought that the Human Emperor Palace was very pleasing to the eye. Why would others say that it was not suitable for him?
Chen Jinzhong was a conscientious worker just as his name implied. Because he still kept introducing the situation of the Divine Wind Palace to Yan Yuntian while walking.
Originally, Yan Yuntian wanted to walk with Zhou Bao, but obviously, Zhou Bao was short of the consciousness to be his subordinate, for he was enjoying the scenery alone. Except for giving a wry smile, Yan Yuntian had no other choices.
He had thought that he could borrow the power of this position to frighten Zhou Bao and even make him his hatchet man after he had become the candidate for the Human Emperor.
But after watching the battle between Zhou Bao and Senior Grand Tutor Hong, he gave up even the slightest idea.
The candidate for the Human Emperor had great influence and was authoritative. In a sense, he was in the name of the will of heaven. What was that?
The will of heaven was not the Right Way, the awe-inspiring righteousness or the virtue of the God, said by those fusty scholars. Plainly speaking, as its name implied, it was the willpower of the heaven. After conducting a series of complicated rites in the coronation, the candidate for the Human Emperor could receive the fated willpower from the heaven. If he acted according to it and enforced justice on behalf of heaven, he would possess great power and even obtained fate and an immense amount of Qi of heaven and earth while he was taking action. If he was unwilling to do it himself and handed it over to someone else, then the one who did it would also gain great benefit. This benefit was invisible, but one could feel it at the same time. Therefore, it was the favorite thing for practitioners to enforce justice on behalf of heaven because they could benefit a lot from everything they did. In that case, if someone else had control of the Human Emperor completely, how much benefit could he gain?
They could gain untold benefit. And that was why the Divine Wind Palace was bound up in the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony for so many years. Once they controlled the candidate for the Human Emperor, they were equal to have an ace in the hole. It would be of great help to their actions.
However, everyone had misjudged the result this time.
Yan Yuntian looked like a man of power and prestige and was promising. But in the eyes of so many mighty experts, he was just used to make up the number. Therefore, usually, they didn’t keep in contact with him frequently. However, the other influences in the Divine Wind Palace, for example, the group led by Yu Nancheng, had associated with Yan Yuntian in secret. They just considered Yan Yuntian’s contending for the candidate for the Human Emperor a game and hoped to see that all of Yan Yuntian’s efforts were in vain, just like drawing water with a bamboo basket.
However, they had never expected that Zhou Bao actually drew water successfully by sealing up the leaks on the bamboo basket.
As Zhou Bao succeeded in drawing water with a bamboo basket, it meant that Yan Yuntian’s position now was utterly different. Presently, Zhou Bao became quite famous.
“Hey, can we change places? How about we move to the Grand Divine Wind Palace? The Human Emperor Palace looks like a place for upstarts!” As Chen Jinzhong took the crowd to the door of the Human Emperor Palace, Zhou Bao had already stood at its door. He said these words unhappily at the sight of Chen Jinzhong.
At these words, Chen Jinzhong felt like kicking Zhou Bao. He was afraid that only Zhou Bao, for so many years, dared to say that the Human Emperor Palace was a place for upstarts and he wanted to move to the Grand Divine Wind Palace.
The Grand Divine Wind Palace, however, was the place for the lord of the Divine Wind Palace. The candidate for the Human Emperor may be of power and influence, but in the end, the real master of the Divine Wind Palace was the lord here rather than the candidate for the Human Emperor.
Chen Jinzhong had to shook his head helplessly as he saw the smile on Zhou Bao’s face. He said, “King Wuyang, you’re joking. The Human Emperor Palace is specially made for the candidate for the Human Emperor, who is in charge of the whole world. Only the Human Emperor Palace is able to demonstrate the majesty of the Human Emperor!”
“Oh, is there any reason about it?”
“Not really. The place that was specially chosen to build the Human Emperor Palace is the place for celestial beings. There is just no better place in this world!”
“Isn’t the Grand Divine Wind Palace better than it?”
“The location of the Grand Divine Wind Palace was settled in antiquity times. Its layout is abstruse and no one is able to see through it and get to know whether it is weal or woe!” Speaking of this, he glanced at Zhou Bao, whose face was filled with disbelief, and gave a wry smile. “You shouldn’t just focus on how domineering and prestigious the lords of the Divine Wind Palace are. In fact, since antiquity times, merely half of the lords ended well. However, since the Human Emperor Palace came into being, every candidate for the Human Emperor have died a natural death.”
“Is that true?” Zhou Bao had never heard of this information. But he knew that Chen Jinzhong would not lie to him. If so, the location of the Human Emperor Palace really was of a good Fengshui.
“Your Majesty, your coronation will be delayed for some time because the Golden Throne has been destroyed. But since you’re the settled candidate for the Human Emperor, the Human Emperor Palace belongs to you from now on!” Chen Jinzhong said reverently. Unlike Yu Taixu, he was the man in the power of Chen’s ancestral temple and also belonged to the branch of the Human Emperor in the Divine Wind Palace. Therefore, he dared not to be rude to Yan Yuntian, the candidate for the Human Emperor.